User interface presenting an animated avatar performing a media reaction

ABSTRACT

This document describes techniques and apparatuses enabling a user interface for presenting a media reaction. The techniques receive media reactions of a person to a media program, such as the person laughing at one point of a comedy show, then smiling at another point, and then departing at a third point. The techniques may present these and other media reactions in a user interface through which a user may interact.

PRIORITY APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/309,859 filed Dec. 2, 2011, entitled “User Interface Presenting an Animated Avatar Performing a Media Reaction,” the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

People often want to know what other people think about television shows, music, movies, and the like. Currently, a person may find out by contacting his friends and asking them if they liked a particular movie, for example. This approach, however, can be time consuming, incomplete, or inaccurate. Asking friends may take a long while, some friends may not have seen the movie, or some friends may have forgotten much of their impression of the program, and so reply with an inaccurate account.

A person may instead search out reviews of a program, such as published critical reviews, or a source that averages online ratings from critics or typical consumers. This approach, however, can also be time consuming or fail to help the person find out if he or she would like the program because the person may not have similar tastes to those of the movie critic or typical consumer.

SUMMARY

This document describes techniques and apparatuses enabling a user interface for presenting a media reaction. The techniques receive media reactions of a person to a media program, such as the person laughing at one point of a comedy show, then smiling at another point, and then departing at a third point. The techniques may present these and other media reactions in a user interface through which a user may interact. In one embodiment, for example, the techniques present a time-based graph showing a person's reactions over the course of a media program and enabling selection to view the media reaction and/or a portion of the media program corresponding to the media reaction.

This summary is provided to introduce simplified concepts enabling a user interface presenting a media reaction, which is further described below in the Detailed Description. This summary is not intended to identify essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended for use in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of techniques and apparatuses enabling a user interface for presenting a media reaction are described with reference to the following drawings. The same numbers are used throughout the drawings to reference like features and components:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example environment in which techniques enabling a user interface for presenting a media reaction can be implemented.

FIG. 2 is an illustration of an example computing device that is local to the audience of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of an example remote computing device that is remote to the audience of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 illustrates example methods for determining media reactions based on passive sensor data.

FIG. 5 illustrates a time-based graph of media reactions, the media reactions being interest levels for one person and for forty time periods during presentation of a media program.

FIG. 6 illustrates example methods for presenting a media reaction to a media program.

FIG. 7 illustrates a tablet computer of FIG. 2 with a graphical user interface presenting time-based graphs and ratings for three persons for a media program.

FIG. 8 illustrates example methods for presenting a media reaction to a media program.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example device in which techniques enabling a user interface presenting a media reaction can be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Overview

This document describes techniques and apparatuses enabling a user interface for presenting a media reaction. The techniques enable users to know how other people reacted to various media programs. A user can quickly and easily see not only who viewed a media program, but what portions they liked or did not like.

Consider, for example, a 30-minute situational comedy, such as The Office, which is typically 22 minutes in total content (eight of the 30 minutes are advertisements). Assume that a user named Melody Pond has not yet watched a particular episode of The Office and wants to know how her sister Amelia Pond, her brother Calvin Pond, and her friend Lydia Brown liked the episode. The techniques enable a user interface that presents media reactions of all three people, assuming that all three have watched that episode. This user interface can present overall impressions of the episode, such as a rating (e.g., four stars), how engaged or interested each person was at each portion of the episode, and states (e.g., laughing, smiling, and talking) for each person throughout the program.

Assume here that Amelia laughed and smiled through most of the episode but cried at one point, Calvin smiled a couple times but was mostly disinterested, and that Lydia was distracted through some portions but laughed in many others. On seeing these media reactions, Melody may select to watch the portion of the episode that caused Amelia to cry, for example. On seeing this portion, Melody may better understand her sister or at least be able to talk with her about that portion of the episode. Melody may instead decide not to watch the episode based on her knowing that she and Calvin have similar tastes in comedies because Calvin didn't seem to enjoy it. Or Melody may select to watch the episode and have Amelia's reactions accompany the episode, such as with an avatar representing Amelia laughing and smiling during the episode at points where Amelia also laughed and smiled.

This is but one example of how techniques and/or apparatuses enabling a user interface presenting a media reaction can be performed. Techniques and/or apparatuses that present and/or determine media reactions are referred to herein separately or in conjunction as the “techniques” as permitted by the context. This document now turns to an example environment in which the techniques can be embodied, after which various example methods for performing the techniques are described.

Example Environment

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an example environment 100 in which the techniques enable a user interface for presenting a media reaction; this environment is also one in which the techniques may receive sensor data and determine media reactions based on this sensor data. Environment 100 includes a media presentation device 102, an audience-sensing device 104, a state module 106, an interest module 108, an interface module 110, and a user interface 112.

Media presentation device 102 presents a media program to an audience 114 having one or more persons 116. A media program can include, alone or in combination, a television show, a movie, a music video, a video clip, an advertisement, a blog, a web page, an e-book, a computer game, a song, a tweet, or other audio and/or video media. Audience 114 can include one or more multiple persons 116 that are in locations enabling consumption of a media program presented by media presentation device 102 and measurement by audience-sensing device 104, whether separately or within one audience 114. In audience 114 three persons are shown: 116-1, 116-2, and 116-3.

Audience-sensing device 104 is capable of passively sensing audience 114 and providing sensor data for audience 114 to state module 106 and/or interest module 108 (sensor data 118 shown provided via an arrow). In this context, sensor data is passive by not requiring active participation of persons in the measurement of those persons. Examples of active sensor data include data recorded by persons in an audience, such as with hand-written logs, and data sensed from users through biometric sensors worn by persons in the audience. Passive sensor data can include data sensed using emitted light or other signals sent by audience-sensing device 104, such as with an infrared sensor bouncing emitted infrared light off of persons or the audience space (e.g., a couch, walls, etc.) and sensing the light that returns. Examples of passive sensor data and ways in which it is measured are provided in greater detail below.

Audience-sensing device 104 may or may not process sensor data prior to providing it to state module 106 and/or interest module 108. Thus, sensor data may be or include raw data or processed data, such as: RGB (Red, Green, Blue) frames; infrared data frames; depth data; heart rate; respiration rate; a person's head orientation or movement (e.g., coordinates in three dimensions, x, y, z, and three angles, pitch, tilt, and yaw); facial (e.g., eyes, nose, and mouth) orientation, movement, or occlusion; skeleton's orientation, movement, or occlusion; audio, which may include information indicating orientation sufficient to determine from which person the audio originated or directly indicating which person, or what words were said, if any; thermal readings sufficient to determine or indicating presence and locations of one of persons 116; and distance from the audience-sensing device 104 or media presentation device 102. In some cases audience-sensing device 104 includes infrared sensors (webcams, Kinect cameras), stereo microphones or directed audio microphones, and a thermal reader (in addition to infrared sensors), though other sensing apparatuses may also or instead be used.

State module 106 receives sensor data and determines, based on the sensor data, states of persons 116 in audience 114 (shown at arrow 120). States include, for example: sad, talking, disgusted, afraid, smiling, scowling, placid, surprised, angry, laughing, screaming, clapping, waving, cheering, looking away, looking toward, leaning away, leaning toward, asleep, or departed, to name just a few.

The talking state can be a general state indicating that a person is talking, though it may also include subcategories based on the content of the speech, such as talking about the media program (related talking) or talking that is unrelated to the media program (unrelated talking) State module 106 can determine which talking category through speech recognition.

State module 106 may also or instead determine, based on sensor data, a number of persons, a person's identity and/or demographic data (shown at 122), or engagement (shown at 124) during presentation. Identity indicates a unique identity for one of persons 116 in audience 114, such as Susan Brown. Demographic data classifies one of persons 116, such as 5 feet, 4 inches tall, young child, and male or female. Engagement indicates whether a person is likely to be paying attention to the media program, such as based on that person's presence or head orientation. Engagement, in some cases, can be determined by state module 106 with lower-resolution or less-processed sensor data compared to that used to determine states. Even so, engagement can be useful in measuring an audience, whether on its own or to determine a person's interest using interest module 108.

Interest module 108 determines, based on sensor data 118 and/or a person's engagement or state (shown with dashed-line arrow 126) and information about the media program (shown at media type arrow 128), that person's interest level (arrow 130) in the media program. Interest module 108 may determine, for example, that multiple laughing states for a media program intended to be a serious drama indicate a low level of interest and conversely, that for a media program intended to be a comedy, that multiple laughing states indicate a high level of interest.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, state module 106 and/or interest module 108 provide demographics/identity 122 as well as one or more of the following media reactions: engagements, shown at arrow 124, states, shown at arrow 120, or interest levels, shown at arrow 130. Based on one or more of these media reactions, state module 106 and/or interest module 108 may also provide another type of media reaction, that of overall media reactions to a media program, such as a rating (e.g., thumbs up or three stars). In some cases, however, media reactions are received and overall media reactions are determined instead by interface module 110.

State module 106 and interest module 108 can be local to audience 114, and thus media presentation device 102 and audience-sensing device 104, though this is not required. An example embodiment where state module 106 and interest module 108 are local to audience 114 is shown in FIG. 2. In some cases, however, state module 106 and/or interest module 108 are remote from audience 114, which is illustrated in FIG. 3.

Interface module 110 receives media reactions (overall or otherwise) and demographics/identity information, and determines or receives some indication as to which media program the reactions pertain. Interface module 110 presents, or causes to be presented, a media reaction (shown at arrow 132) to a media program through user interface 112. This media reaction can be any of the above-mentioned reactions, some of which are presented in a time-based graph to show a person's reaction over the course of the associated media program.

Interface module 110 can be local to audience 114, such as in cases where one person is viewing his or her own media reactions or those of a family member. In many cases, however, interface module 110 receives media reactions from a remote source.

FIG. 2 is an illustration of an example computing device 202 that is local to audience 114. Computing device 202 includes or has access to media presentation device 102, audience-sensing device 104, one or more processors 204, and computer-readable storage media (“media”) 206. Media 206 includes an operating system 208, state module 106, interest module 108, media program(s) 210, each of which may include or have associated program information 212, interface module 110, and user interface 112. Note that in this illustrated example, media presentation device 102, audience-sensing device 104, state module 106, interest module 108, and interface module 110 are included within a single computing device, such as a desktop computer having a display, forward-facing camera, microphones, audio output, and the like. Each of these entities 102, 104, 106, 108, and 110, however, may be separate from or integral with each other in one or multiple computing devices or otherwise. As will be described in part below, media presentation device 102 can be integral with audience-sensing device 104 but be separate from state module 106, interest module 108, or interface module 110. Further, each of modules 106, 108, and 110 may operate on separate devices or be combined in one device.

As shown in FIG. 2, computing device(s) 202 can each be one or a combination of various devices, here illustrated with six examples: a laptop computer 202-1, a tablet computer 202-2, a smart phone 202-3, a set-top box 202-4, a desktop 202-5, and a gaming system 202-6, though other computing devices and systems, such as televisions with computing capabilities, netbooks, and cellular phones, may also be used. Note that three of these computing devices 202 include media presentation device 102 and audience-sensing device 104 (laptop computer 202-1, tablet computer 202-2, smart phone 202-3). One device excludes but is in communication with media presentation device 102 and audience-sensing device 104 (desktop 202-5). Two others exclude media presentation device 102 and may or may not include audience-sensing device 104, such as in cases where audience-sensing device 104 is included within media presentation device 102 (set-top box 202-4 and gaming system 202-6).

FIG. 3 is an illustration of an example remote computing device 302 that is remote to audience 114. FIG. 3 also illustrates a communications network 304 through which remote computing device 302 communicates with audience-sensing device 104 (not shown, but embodied within, or in communication with, computing device 202) and/or interface module 110. Communication network 304 may be the Internet, a local-area network, a wide-area network, a wireless network, a USB hub, a computer bus, another mobile communications network, or a combination of these.

Remote computing device 302 includes one or more processors 306 and remote computer-readable storage media (“remote media”) 308. Remote media 308 includes state module 106, interest module 108, and media program(s) 210, each of which may include or have associated program information 212. Note that in this illustrated example, media presentation device 102 and audience-sensing device 104 are physically separate from state module 106 and interest module 108, with the first two local to an audience viewing a media program and the second two operating remotely. Thus, as will be described in greater detail below, sensor data is passed from audience-sensing device 104 to one or both of state module 106 or interest module 108, which can be communicated locally (FIG. 2) or remotely (FIG. 3). Further, after determination by state module 106 and/or interest module 108, various media reactions and other information can be communicated to the same or other computing devices 202 for receipt by interface module 110. Thus, in some cases a first of communication devices 202 may measure sensor data, communicate that sensor data to remote device 302, after which remote device 302 communicates media reactions to another of computing devices 202, all through network 304.

These and other capabilities, as well as ways in which entities of FIGS. 1-3 act and interact, are set forth in greater detail below. These entities may be further divided, combined, and so on. The environment 100 of FIG. 1 and the detailed illustrations of FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate some of many possible environments capable of employing the described techniques.

Example Methods

FIG. 4 depicts methods 400 determines media reactions based on passive sensor data. These and other methods described herein are shown as sets of blocks that specify operations performed but are not necessarily limited to the order shown for performing the operations by the respective blocks. In portions of the following discussion reference may be made to environment 100 of FIG. 1 and entities detailed in FIGS. 2-3, reference to which is made for example only. The techniques are not limited to performance by one entity or multiple entities operating on one device.

Block 402 senses or receives sensor data for an audience or person, the sensor data passively sensed during presentation of a media program to the audience or person.

Consider, for example, a case where an audience includes three persons 116, persons 116-1, 116-2, and 116-3 all of FIG. 1. Assume that media presentation device 102 is an LCD display having speakers and through which the media program is rendered and that the display is in communication with set-top box 202-4 of FIG. 2. Here audience-sensing device 104 is a Kinect, forward-facing high-resolution infrared red-green-blue sensor and two microphones capable of sensing sound and location that is integral with set-top box 202-4 or media presentation device 102. Assume also that the media program 210 being presented is a PG-rated animated movie named Incredible Family, which is streamed from a remote source and through set-top box 202-4. Set-top box 202-4 presents Incredible Family with six advertisements, spaced one at the beginning of the movie, three in a three-ad block, and two in a two-ad block.

Sensor data is received for all three persons 116 in audience 114; for this example consider first person 116-1. Assume here that, over the course of Incredible Family, that audience-sensing device 104 measures, and then provides at block 402, the following at various times for person 116-1:

-   -   Time 1, head orientation 3 degrees, no or low-amplitude audio.     -   Time 2, head orientation 24 degrees, no audio.     -   Time 3, skeletal movement (arms), high-amplitude audio.     -   Time 4, skeletal movement (arms and body), high-amplitude audio.     -   Time 5, head movement, facial-feature change (20%),         moderate-amplitude audio.     -   Time 6, detailed facial orientation data, no audio.     -   Time 7, skeletal orientation (missing), no audio.     -   Time 8, facial orientation, respiration rate.

Block 404 determines, based on the sensor data, a state of the person during the media program. In some cases block 404 determines a probability for the state or multiple probabilities for multiple states, respectively. For example, block 404 may determine a state likely to be correct but with less than full certainty (e.g., 90% chance that the person is laughing). Block 404 may also or instead determine that multiple states are possible based on the sensor data, such as a sad or placid state, and probabilities for each (e.g., sad state 65%, placid state 35%).

Block 404 may also or instead determine demographics, identity, and/or engagement. Further, methods 400 may skip block 404 and proceed directly to block 406, as described later below.

In the ongoing example, state module 106 receives the above-listed sensor data and determines the following corresponding states for person 116-1:

-   -   Time 1: Looking toward.     -   Time 2: Looking away.     -   Time 3: Clapping.     -   Time 4: Cheering.     -   Time 5: Laughing.     -   Time 6: Smiling.     -   Time 7: Departed.     -   Time 8: Asleep.

At Time 1 state module 106 determines, based on the sensor data indicating a 3-degree deviation of person 116-1's head from looking directly at the LCD display and a rule indicating that the looking toward state applies for deviations of less than 20 degrees (by way of example only), that person 116-1's state is looking toward the media program. Similarly, at Time 2, state module 106 determines person 116-1 to be looking away due to the deviation being greater than 20 degrees.

At Time 3, state module 106 determines, based on sensor data indicating that person 116-1 has skeletal movement in his arms and audio that is high amplitude that person 116-1 is clapping. State module 106 may differentiate between clapping and other states, such as cheering, based on the type of arm movement (not indicated above for brevity). Similarly, at Time 4, state module 106 determines that person 116-1 is cheering due to arm movement and high-amplitude audio attributable to person 116-1.

At Time 5, state module 106 determines, based on sensor data indicating that person 116-1 has head movement, facial-feature changes of 20%, and moderate-amplitude audio, that person 116-1 is laughing. Various sensor data can be used to differentiate different states, such as screaming, based on the audio being moderate-amplitude rather than high-amplitude and the facial-feature changes, such as an opening of the mouth and a rising of both eyebrows.

For Time 6, audience-sensing device 104 processes raw sensor data to provide processed sensor data, and in this case facial recognition processing to provide detailed facial orientation data. In conjunction with no audio, state module 106 determines that the detailed facial orientation data (here upturned lip corners, amount of eyelids covering eyes) that person 116-1 is smiling.

At Time 7, state module 106 determines, based on sensor data indicating that person 116-1 has skeletal movement moving away from the audience-sensing device 104, that person 116-1 is departed. The sensor data may indicate this directly as well, such as in cases where audience-sensing device 104 does not sense person 116-1's presence, either through no skeletal or head readings or a thermal signature no longer being received.

At Time 8, state module 106 determines, based on sensor data indicating that person 116-1's facial orientation has not changed over a certain period (e.g., the person's eyes have not blinked) and a steady, slow respiration rate that person 116-1 is asleep.

These eight sensor readings are simplified examples for purpose of explanation. Sensor data may include extensive data as noted elsewhere herein. Further, sensor data may be received measuring an audience every fraction of a second, thereby providing detailed data for tens, hundreds, and thousands of periods during presentation of a media program and from which states or other media reactions may be determined.

Returning to methods 400, block 404 may determine demographics, identity, and engagement in addition to a person's state. State module 106 may determine or receive sensor data from which to determine demographics and identity or receive, from audience-sensing device 104, the demographics or identity. Continuing the ongoing example, the sensor data for person 116-1 may indicate that person 116-1 is John Brown, that person 116-2 is Lydia Brown, and that person 116-3 is Susan Brown, for example. Or sensor data may indicate that person 116-1 is six feet, four inches tall and male (based on skeletal orientation), for example. The sensor data may be received with or include information indicating portions of the sensor data attributable separately to each person in the audience. In this present example, however, assume that audience-sensing device 104 provides three sets of sensor data, with each set indicating the identity of the person along with the sensor data.

Also at block 404, the techniques may determine an engagement of an audience or person in the audience. As noted, this determination can be less refined than that of states of a person, but nonetheless is useful. Assume for the above example, that sensor data is received for person 116-2 (Lydia Brown), and that this sensor data includes only head and skeletal orientation:

-   -   Time 1, head orientation 0 degrees, skeletal orientation upper         torso forward of lower torso.     -   Time 2, head orientation 2 degrees, skeletal orientation upper         torso forward of lower torso.     -   Time 3, head orientation 5 degrees, skeletal orientation upper         torso approximately even with lower torso.     -   Time 4, head orientation 2 degrees, skeletal orientation upper         torso back from lower torso.     -   Time 5, head orientation 16 degrees, skeletal orientation upper         torso back from lower torso.     -   Time 6, head orientation 37 degrees, skeletal orientation upper         torso back from lower torso.     -   Time 7, head orientation 5 degrees, skeletal orientation upper         torso forward of lower torso.     -   Time 8, head orientation 1 degree, skeletal orientation upper         torso forward of lower torso.

State module 106 receives this sensor data and determines the following corresponding engagement for Lydia Brown:

-   -   Time 1: Engagement High.     -   Time 2: Engagement High.     -   Time 3: Engagement Medium-High.     -   Time 4: Engagement Medium.     -   Time 5: Engagement Medium-Low.     -   Time 6: Engagement Low.     -   Time 7: Engagement High.     -   Time 8: Engagement High.

At Times 1, 2, 7, and 8, state module 106 determines, based on the sensor data indicating a 5-degree-or-less deviation of person 116-2's head from looking directly at the LCD display and skeletal orientation of upper torso forward of lower torso (indicating that Lydia is leaning forward to the media presentation) that Lydia is highly engaged in Incredible Family at these times.

At Time 3, state module 106 determines that Lydia's engagement level has fallen due to Lydia no longer leaning forward. At Time 4, state module 106 determines that Lydia's engagement has fallen further to medium based on Lydia leaning back, even though she is still looking almost directly at Incredible Family.

At Times 5 and 6, state module 106 determines Lydia is less engaged, falling to Medium-Low and then Low engagement based on Lydia still leaning back and looking slightly away (16 degrees) and then significantly away (37 degrees), respectively. Note that at Time 7 Lydia quickly returns to a High engagement, which media creators are likely interested in, as it indicates content found to be exciting or otherwise captivating.

Methods 400 may proceed directly from block 402 to block 406, or from block 404 to block 406 or block 408. If proceeding to block 406 from block 404, the techniques determine an interest level based on the type of media being presented and the person's engagement or state. If proceeding to block 406 from block 402, the techniques determine an interest level based on the type of media being presented and the person's sensor data, without necessarily first or independently determining the person's engagement or state.

Continuing the above examples for persons 116-1 and 116-2, assume that block 406 receives states determined by state module 106 at block 404 for person 116-1 (John Brown). Based on the states for John Brown and information about the media program, interest module 108 determines an interest level, either overall or over time, for Incredible Family. Assume here that Incredible Family is both an adventure and a comedy program, with portions of the movie marked as having one of these media types. While simplified, assume that Times 1 and 2 are marked as comedy, Times 3 and 4 are marked as adventure, Times 5 and 6 are marked as comedy, and that Times 7 and 8 are marked as adventure. Revisiting the states determined by state module 106, consider the following again:

-   -   Time 1: Looking toward.     -   Time 2: Looking away.     -   Time 3: Clapping.     -   Time 4: Cheering.     -   Time 5: Laughing.     -   Time 6: Smiling.     -   Time 7: Departed.     -   Time 8: Asleep.

Based on these states, state module 106 determines for Time 1 that John Brown has a medium-low interest in the content at Time 1—if this were of an adventure or drama type, state module 106 may determine John Brown to instead be highly interested. Here, however, due to the content being comedy and thus intended to elicit laughter or a similar state, interest module 108 determines that John Brown has a medium-low interest at Time 1. Similarly, for Time 2, interest module 108 determines that John Brown has a low interest at Time 2 because his state is not only not laughing or smiling but is looking away.

At Times 3 and 4, interest module 108 determines, based on the adventure type for these times and states of clapping and cheering, that John Brown has a high interest level. At time 6, based on the comedy type and John Brown smiling, that he has a medium interest at this time.

At Times 7 and 8, interest module 108 determines that John Brown has a very low interest. Here the media type is adventure, though in this case interest module 108 would determine John Brown's interest level to be very low for most types of content.

As can be readily seen, advertisers, media providers, and media creators can benefit from knowing a person's interest level. Here assume that the interest level is provided over time for Incredible Family, along with demographic information about John Brown. With this information from numerous demographically similar persons, a media creator may learn that male adults are interested in some of the adventure content but that most of the comedy portions are not interesting, at least for this demographic group.

Consider, by way of a more-detailed example, FIG. 5, which illustrates a time-based graph 500 having interest levels 502 for forty time periods 504 over a portion of a media program. Here assume that the media program is a movie that includes other media programs—advertisements—at time periods 18 to 30. Interest module 108 determines, as shown, that the person begins with a medium interest level, and then bounces between medium and medium-high, high, and very high interest levels to time period 18. During the first advertisement, which covers time periods 18-22, interest module 108 determines that the person has a medium low interest level. For time periods 23 to 28, however, interest module 108 determines that the person has a very low interest level (because he is looking away and talking or left the room, for example). For the last advertisement, which covers time period 28 to 32, however, interest module 108 determines that the person has a medium interest level for time periods 29 to 32—most of the advertisement. This can be valuable information—the person stayed for the first advertisement, left for the middle advertisement and the beginning of the last advertisement, and returned, with medium interest, for most of the last advertisement. Contrast this resolution and accuracy of interest with some conventional approaches, which likely would provide no information about how many of the people that watched the movie actually watched the advertisements, which ones, and with what amount of interest. If this example is a common trend with the viewing public, prices for advertisements in the middle of a block would go down, and other advertisement prices would be adjusted as well. Or, advertisers and media providers might learn to play shorter advertisement blocks having only two advertisements, for example. Interest levels 502 also provide valuable information about portions of the movie itself, such as through the very high interest level at time period 7 and the waning interest at time periods 35-38.

Note that, in some cases, engagement levels, while useful, may be less useful or accurate than states and interest levels. For example, state module 106 may determine, for just engagement levels, that a person is not engaged if the person's face is occluded (blocked) and thus not looking at the media program. If the person's face is blocked by that person's hands (skeletal orientation) and audio indicates high-volume audio, state module 106, when determining states, may determine the person to be screaming. A screaming state indicates, in conjunction with the content being horror or suspense, an interest level that is very high. This is but one example of where an interest level can be markedly different from that of an engagement level.

As noted above, methods 400 may proceed directly from block 402 to block 406. In such a case, interest module 108, either alone or in conjunction with state module 106, determines an interest level based on the type of media (including multiple media types for different portions of a media program) and the sensor data. By way of example, interest module 108 may determine that for sensor data for John Brown at Time 4, which indicates skeletal movement (arms and body), and high-amplitude audio, and a comedy, athletics, conflict-based talk show, adventure-based video game, tweet, or horror types, that John Brown has a high interest level at Time 4. Conversely, interest module 108 may determine that for the same sensor data at Time 4 for a drama, melodrama, or classical music, that John Brown has a low interest level at Time 4. This can be performed based on the sensor data without first determining an engagement level or state, though this may also be performed.

Block 408, either after block 404 or 406, provides the demographics, identity, engagement, state, and/or interest level. State module 106 or interest module 108 may provide this information to various entities, such as interest module 110, as well as advertisers, media creators, and media providers. Providing this information to an advertising entity or media provider can be effective to enable the advertising entity to measure a value of their advertisements shown during a media program or the media provider to set advertisement costs. Providing this information to a media creator can be effective to enable the media creator to assess a potential value of a similar media program or portion thereof. For example, a media creator, prior to releasing the media program to the general public, may determine portions of the media program that are not well received, and thus alter the media program to improve it.

Providing this information to a rating entity can be effective to enable the rating entity to automatically rate the media program for the person. Still other entities, such as a media controller, may use the information to improve media control and presentation. A local controller may pause the media program responsive to all of the persons in the audience departing the room, for example. Providing media reactions to interest module 110 are addressed in detail in other methods described below.

Further, this information may be provided to other entities as well. Providing this information to a rating entity, for example, can be effective to enable the rating entity to automatically rate the media program for the person (e.g., four stars out of five or a “thumbs up”). Providing this information to a media controller, for example, may enable the media controller to improve media control and presentation, such as by pausing the media program responsive to all of the persons in the audience departing the room.

As noted herein, the techniques can determine numerous states for a person over the course of most media programs, even for 15-second advertisements or video snippets. In such a case block 404 is repeated, such as at one-second periods.

Furthermore, state module 106 may determine not only multiple states for a person over time, but also various different states at a particular time. A person may be both laughing and looking away, for example, both of which are states that may be determined and provided or used to determine the person's interest level.

Further still, either or both of state module 106 and interest module 108 may determine engagement, states, and/or interest levels based on historical data in addition to sensor data or media type. In one case a person's historical sensor data is used to normalize the person's engagement, states, or interest levels. If, for example, Susan Brown is viewing a media program and sensor data for her is received, the techniques may normalize or otherwise learn how best to determine engagement, states, and interest levels for her based on her historical sensor data. If Susan Brown's historical sensor data indicates that she is not a particularly expressive or vocal person, the techniques may adjust for this history. Thus, lower-amplitude audio may be sufficient to determine that Susan Brown laughed compared to an amplitude of audio used to determine that a typical person laughed.

In another case, historical engagement, states, or interest levels of the person for which sensor data is received are compared with historical engagement, states, or interest levels for other people. Thus, a lower interest level may be determined for Lydia Brown based on data indicating that she exhibits a high interest for almost every media program she watches compared to other people's interest levels (either generally or for the same media program). In either of these cases the techniques learn over time, and thereby can normalize engagement, states, and/or interest levels.

FIG. 6 depicts methods 600 enabling a user interface presenting media reactions. Methods 600 are responsive to determining one or more persons to which a selected media program has been presented, though this is not required.

People often want to know how other people reacted to a particular program, such as to compare his or her own reactions to theirs or to decide whether or not to watch the program. By way of example, consider again the above example of Melody Pond wishing to determine which of her friends and family watched a particular episode of The Office and their reactions to it. Here assume that Melody does not yet know which of her friends and family have seen the episode and that she has not yet seen the episode.

Block 602 receives selection of a media program. This can be through selecting an icon, graphic, or label for the media program, or receiving terms for a search inquiry by which to determine the media program, or other manners. Assume here that Melody enters, into a data entry field (not shown) of user interface 112, the search terms: “the office”. In response, interface module 110 presents likely candidates, such as a movie named “the office” and the last three episodes of the television show The Office. In response, Melody selects the most-recent episode of the television show, episode 104.

Block 604 determines a person to which a selected media program has been presented and passive sensor data has been sensed during the presentation of the selected media program to the person or for which media reactions have been received. Block 604 may determine persons from a group that have indicated a selection to share media reactions with the user of the user interface, such as friends and family. Block 604 may also or instead find other people that the user doesn't know, such as published critics or famous people for which passive sensor data has been recorded. For this example, Melody's friends and family are found, namely Calvin Pond, Lydia Brown, and Amelia Pond.

At some point media reactions for a person are received by interface module 110, whether from a local or remote state module 106 or interest module 108 (e.g., at computing device 202 or remote device 302, respectively).

Block 606 presents, in a user interface, a media reaction for the person, the media reaction determined based on the passive sensor data sensed during the presentation of the selected media program to the person. The media reaction can include any of the reactions noted above, such as an overall rating for the program or a time-based graph showing reactions over the course of the program, to name just two.

A time-based graph shows media reactions for the person over at least some portion of the media program, such as at particular time periods. Interface module 110 may present the media reactions in a lower-resolution format, such as by aggregating or averaging these media reactions. If media reactions are received in one-second time periods, for example, interface module 110 may average these into larger (e.g., five- or ten-second) time periods. By so doing, a user may more-easily consume the information. Interface module 110, however, may also enable the user to select to view the original, higher resolution as well.

Consider, for example, FIG. 7, which illustrates tablet computer 202-2 with a graphical user interface 700 presenting time-based graphs and ratings for three persons for a media program. Continuing the ongoing example, three persons are determined: Amelia Pond, Calvin Pond, and Lydia Brown. For breadth of illustration, each of the time-based graphs show different categories of media reactions, namely engagement, interest level, and state, each of which are described above, as well as an average of these three in one time-based graph. The four graphs each present 44 media reactions (separately or as an average), one for each 30-second time period of 22 total minutes of media content.

Interest level graph 702 shows interest levels over the 44 time periods for Calvin Pond. Interest level graph 702 shows that Calvin had a medium to very low interest level through much of the program.

Engagement graph 704 shows engagements over the 44 time periods for Lydia Brown. Engagement graph 704 shows that Lydia was highly engaged for much of the program. Here assume that Lydia watched the program through a mobile device having a lower-resolution audience-sensing device (e.g., a camera in smart phone 202-3) and thus engagements for Lydia were received.

State graph 706 shows states over the 44 time periods for Amelia Pond. State graph 706 shows that Amelia was laughing or smiling through most of the program. For visual brevity, state graph 706 shows four states, laughing, smiling, looking-away, and crying.

Average reaction graph 708 shows an average of Calvin's interest levels, Lydia's engagement, and Amelia's states. This can be useful to the user to gauge how his or her friends (in this case Melody Pond) liked the media program. An average of reactions can be any mix of reactions or just include states, engagements, or interest levels of multiple people, though this is not required. Here the average includes all three of interest levels, engagements, and states. To produce this average, the techniques may convert any non-numerical reactions, such as Amelia's states, to a number for averaging, as well as normalize and/or weight one or more of the reactions.

Graphical user interface 700 also presents four ratings, 710, 712, 714, and 716. These ratings are based on the reactions received or can be received themselves. Thus, these ratings can be determined automatically by state module 106, interest module 108, or interface module 110, or they may be based on a manual selection by the person. The first rating, 710, indicates that Calvin's rating is 2.8 out of five, which corresponds to interest level graph 702. The second rating, 712, indicates that Lydia's rating is 4.3 out of five, which corresponds to her high engagement throughout the program. The third rating, 714, summarizes Amelia's most-common state, that of laughing, and presents a laughing graphic to show this rating. The fourth rating, 716, is an average of the first, second, and third ratings, with the third rating converted into a number (4.5) to produce the fourth rating of 3.9.

Graphical user interface 700 presents an identity of the media program (The Office, Episode 104) at 718 and identifiers for individual persons at 720, 722, and 724, and a conglomerate of these individual persons at 726, which here are the person's names, though icons, avatars, graphics, or other identifiers may be used.

Returning to methods 600, the techniques may optionally enable selection, through the user interface, to display the media program or a portion thereof. This option is shown at block 608. Interface module 110 can enable selection to play all of the media program, for example, through selection of the identifier (here 718 in graphical user interface 700). A portion or portions may also be selected. Consider a case where the media reactions are presented with some correlation or associated with portions of the media program, such as with time periods in the above-described time-based graphs.

In such a case, block 608 enables selection, through the time-based graph of the user interface, to display a portion of the media program corresponding to a media reaction, such as a very high engagement in engagement graph 704 or a crying state in state graph 706. Thus, a user of graphical user interface 700, such as Melody Pond, may select a crying icon 728 in state graph 706 to see the portion of The Office during which Amelia cried. Further, interface module 110 enables users to select to see the media program in conjunction with a representation of a person's media reactions, such as through an animated avatar performing a state (e.g., laughing, clapping, or cheering) or indicating an engagement or interest level of the media reactions.

Likewise, consider a second case where a portion or portions of the media program may be selected through graphical user interface 700. Assume that a user wishes to see the best parts of a media program—such as parts where the user or one or more friends laughed at a comedy or cried during a melodrama. In the ongoing example, assume Melody Pond wishes to see the funniest parts of The Office, Episode 104, based on all three of her friend's reactions. In such a case, block 608 enables selection to display a portion or portions of the media program. Here Melody Pond may select a “Best Part!” control 730 or a “Best Five!” control 732 to see portions of The Office where all of her friends laughed (control 730) or all of them laughed or at least smiled (control 732). As in the above examples, interface module 110 may enable users to see these portions alone or in conjunction with a representation of one or more persons' media reactions.

Block 610, responsive to selection of the media program or portion thereof, causes the media program or portion to be presented. Interface module 110, for example, may cause a television to present the portion of the media program or pop up a window showing the portion over or within graphical user interface 700. In cases where the media program is selected to be presented in conjunction with a representation of the person's media reactions, interface module 110 may render the program with an avatar presented in a corner of the display, for example. Interface module 110 is not limited to representing reactions of one person, interface module 110 may present The Office with avatars for all three of Calvin, Lydia, and Amelia to show their reactions during the program.

Concluding the ongoing example, interface module 110 at block 610, in response to selection of crying icon 722, presents a 30-second clip of The Office within a portion of graphical user interface 700.

FIG. 8 depicts methods 800 enabling a user interface presenting media reactions. Methods 800 present media reactions for media programs responsive to determining which media programs a selected person has seen, though this is not required. The techniques may perform methods 400, 600, and/or 800, alone or in conjunction with each other, in whole or in part.

Block 802 receives selection of a person. The person may be selected through a user interface through which media reactions will be displayed, such as through a graphical representation or other identifier of the person, though this is not required.

Block 804 determines a media program that has been presented to the selected person and for which passive sensor data has been sensed during the presentation of the media program to the selected person.

By way of example, consider a case where a user of user interface 112 of FIG. 1 wishes to know what his best friend has watched over the last month. Assume that the user knows that he has similar tastes as his best friend and so would like to find out which programs his best friend liked. The techniques can enable the user to quickly and easily see what his best friend has watched as well as overall ratings for these programs and/or reactions to various portions of the programs.

Block 806 presents, in a user interface, a time-based graph for the person, the time-based graph showing media reactions for the person and determined based on the passive sensor data sensed during the presentation of the selected media program to the person. Interface module 110 may repeat block 804 and 806 to show numerous graphs for numerous media programs, such as time-based graphs for three movies, nine television shows, four music videos, twelve tweets, and six video clips. Interface module 110 may arrange these by media category, such as movies together, then television shows, and so forth, or by rating (e.g., highest rating to lowest rating), or by order viewed, to name just a few.

The preceding discussion describes methods relating to determining or presenting a person's media reactions based on passive sensor data. Aspects of these methods may be implemented in hardware (e.g., fixed logic circuitry), firmware, software, manual processing, or any combination thereof. A software implementation represents program code that performs specified tasks when executed by a computer processor. The example methods may be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, which can include software, applications, routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, procedures, modules, functions, and the like. The program code can be stored in one or more computer-readable memory devices, both local and/or remote to a computer processor. The methods may also be practiced in a distributed computing mode by multiple computing devices. Further, the features described herein are platform-independent and can be implemented on a variety of computing platforms having a variety of processors.

These techniques may be embodied on one or more of the entities shown in FIGS. 1-3 and 9 (device 900 is described below), which may be further divided, combined, and so on. Thus, these figures illustrate some of many possible systems or apparatuses capable of employing the described techniques. The entities of these figures generally represent software, firmware, hardware, whole devices or networks, or a combination thereof. In the case of a software implementation, for instance, the entities (e.g., state module 106, interest module 108, and interface module 110) represent program code that performs specified tasks when executed on a processor (e.g., processor(s) 204 and/or 306). The program code can be stored in one or more computer-readable memory devices, such as media 206 and/or 308 or computer-readable media 914 of FIG. 9.

Example Device

FIG. 9 illustrates various components of example device 900 that can be implemented as any type of client, server, and/or computing device as described with reference to the previous FIGS. 1-8 to implement techniques enabling a user interface presenting a media reaction. In embodiments, device 900 can be implemented as one or a combination of a wired and/or wireless device, as a form of television mobile computing device (e.g., television set-top box, digital video recorder (DVR), etc.), consumer device, computer device, server device, portable computer device, user device, communication device, video processing and/or rendering device, appliance device, gaming device, electronic device, System-on-Chip (SoC), and/or as another type of device or portion thereof. Device 900 may also be associated with a user (e.g., a person) and/or an entity that operates the device such that a device describes logical devices that include users, software, firmware, and/or a combination of devices.

Device 900 includes communication devices 902 that enable wired and/or wireless communication of device data 904 (e.g., received data, data that is being received, data scheduled for broadcast, data packets of the data, etc.). Device data 904 or other device content can include configuration settings of the device, media content stored on the device (e.g., media programs 210), and/or information associated with a user of the device. Media content stored on device 900 can include any type of audio, video, and/or image data. Device 900 includes one or more data inputs 906 via which any type of data, media content, and/or inputs can be received, such as human utterances, user-selectable inputs, messages, music, television media content, recorded video content, and any other type of audio, video, and/or image data received from any content and/or data source.

Device 900 also includes communication interfaces 908, which can be implemented as any one or more of a serial and/or parallel interface, a wireless interface, any type of network interface, a modem, and as any other type of communication interface. Communication interfaces 908 provide a connection and/or communication links between device 900 and a communication network by which other electronic, computing, and communication devices communicate data with device 900.

Device 900 includes one or more processors 910 (e.g., any of microprocessors, controllers, and the like), which process various computer-executable instructions to control the operation of device 900 and to enable techniques enabling a user interface presenting a media reaction. Alternatively or in addition, device 900 can be implemented with any one or combination of hardware, firmware, or fixed logic circuitry that is implemented in connection with processing and control circuits which are generally identified at 912. Although not shown, device 900 can include a system bus or data transfer system that couples the various components within the device. A system bus can include any one or combination of different bus structures, such as a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, a universal serial bus, and/or a processor or local bus that utilizes any of a variety of bus architectures.

Device 900 also includes computer-readable storage media 914, such as one or more memory devices that enable persistent and/or non-transitory data storage (i.e., in contrast to mere signal transmission), examples of which include random access memory (RAM), non-volatile memory (e.g., any one or more of a read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, EPROM, EEPROM, etc.), and a disk storage device. A disk storage device may be implemented as any type of magnetic or optical storage device, such as a hard disk drive, a recordable and/or rewriteable compact disc (CD), any type of a digital versatile disc (DVD), and the like. Device 900 can also include a mass storage media device 916.

Computer-readable storage media 914 provides data storage mechanisms to store device data 904, as well as various device applications 918 and any other types of information and/or data related to operational aspects of device 900. For example, an operating system 920 can be maintained as a computer application with computer-readable storage media 914 and executed on processors 910. Device applications 918 may include a device manager, such as any form of a control application, software application, signal-processing and control module, code that is native to a particular device, a hardware abstraction layer for a particular device, and so on.

Device applications 918 also include any system components, engines, or modules to implement techniques enabling a user interface presenting a media reaction. In this example, device applications 918 can include state module 106, interest module 108, or interface module 110.

CONCLUSION

Although embodiments of techniques and apparatuses enabling a user interface presenting a media reaction have been described in language specific to features and/or methods, it is to be understood that the subject of the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or methods described. Rather, the specific features and methods are disclosed as example implementations enabling a user interface presenting a media reaction. 

What is claimed is:
 1. One or more computer-readable storage media having instructions stored thereon that, responsive to execution by one or more processors, perform a method comprising: determining a person to which a selected media program has been presented and passive sensor data has been sensed during the presentation of the selected media program to the person; and presenting, in a user interface, an animated avatar performing a media reaction corresponding to a reaction for the person during the presentation of the selected media program to the person, the media reaction determined based on the passive sensor data sensed for the person during the presentation of the selected media program.
 2. One or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 1, wherein: the media reaction includes a clapping, cheering, laughing, screaming, looking toward, looking away, smiling, departed, crying, or sleeping state.
 3. One or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 1, further comprising presenting multiple other animated avatars performing multiple other media reactions in a time-based state graph for the person.
 4. One or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 1, further comprising presenting a rating automatically determined for the person based on the passive sensor data.
 5. One or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 1, wherein determining the person determines the person from a group of persons that have selected to share media reactions with a second person, the second person associated with the user interface or associated with a computing device through which the user interface is presented.
 6. One or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 1, further comprising determining one or more other persons to which the selected media program has been presented and other passive sensor data has been sensed during the presentation of the selected media program to the one or more other persons and presenting, in the user interface, another media reaction corresponding to another reaction for each of the one or more other persons.
 7. One or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 1, further comprising enabling selection, through the user interface, to display the selected media program or a portion thereof, and responsive to selection, causing display of the selected media program or portion thereof.
 8. One or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 7, wherein causing display of the selected media program or portion thereof presents the selected media program or portion thereof in the user interface.
 9. One or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 7, further comprising causing a representation of the media reaction to be displayed along with presentation of the selected media program or portion thereof.
 10. One or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 1, further comprising, prior to presenting the animated avatar performing the media reaction corresponding to the reaction for the person, determining the media reaction based on the passive sensor data sensed during the presentation of the selected media program to the person.
 11. One or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 1, further comprising, prior to presenting the animated avatar performing the media reaction corresponding to the reaction for the person, receiving a search inquiry through the user interface and determining, based on the search inquiry, the selected media program.
 12. A system comprising: one or more processors; and memory storing instructions which, responsive to execution by the one or more processors, configure the one or more processors to perform acts comprising: determining a media program that has been presented to a selected person and for which passive sensor data has been sensed during the presentation of the media program to the selected person; and presenting, in a user interface, an animated avatar performing a media reaction representing a reaction for the selected person.
 13. A system as described in claim 12, wherein the media reaction is determined based on the passive sensor data sensed during the presentation of the selected media program to the selected person.
 14. A system as described in claim 12, wherein the media reaction includes a clapping, cheering, laughing, screaming, looking toward, looking away, smiling, departed, crying, sleeping, sad, related talking, unrelated talking, disgusted, afraid, scowling, placid, surprised, waving, leaning-away, leaning-toward, or angry state.
 15. A system as described in claim 12, further comprising determining multiple other media programs that have been presented to the selected person and for which passive sensor data has been sensed during the presentations of the media programs and, responsive to determining the multiple other media programs, presenting another media reaction corresponding to another reaction for each of the multiple other media programs within the user interface.
 16. A system as described in claim 15, wherein the other media reactions each include multiple other media reactions and presenting another media reaction for each of the multiple other media programs within the user interface presents time-based graphs for each of the other media reactions.
 17. A system as described in claim 16, wherein presenting the time-based graphs presents the time-based graphs in the user interface arranged by order of viewing, media category, or rating for the respective media programs.
 18. A system as described in claim 12, further comprising presenting a rating automatically determined for the selected person based on the passive sensor data.
 19. One or more computer-readable storage media having instructions thereon that, responsive to execution by one or more processors, perform a method comprising: receiving media reactions for a person, the media reactions determined based on sensor data passively sensed at time periods during which a media program is presented to the person; presenting, in a user interface, a time-based graph, the time-based graph showing the media reactions for the person at the time periods; enabling selection, through the time-based graph of the user interface, to display a portion of the media program associated with one of the media reactions; and responsive to selection of the portion of the media program, causing: the portion of the media program to be presented; and an animated avatar to be presented in conjunction with the portion of the media program and in correspondence with one of the media reactions for the person.
 20. One or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 19, wherein the media reactions include states of the person, the states including one or more of: a sad, a related talking, an unrelated talking, a disgusted, an afraid, a scowling, a placid, a surprised, an angry, a waving, a leaning-away, or a leaning-toward state. 